Polyps will let unrelated ‘others’ fuse to them and share tissue, scientists discover

University of Kansas scientists discovered that polyps have no qualms about treating a nonrelated individual like part of the family. This goes way beyond sharing meals or even a roof. Polyps of the marine hydrozoan Ectopleura larynx allow nonrelated individuals to fuse their bodies to the familial colony and share what is essentially skin and a stomach. The findings appeared yesterday in the journal Evolution Letters.